5 Clever Ways Amazon Gets You To Spend More

Working Woman Report is the source for stories about women in business, women in leadership, and news about empowering women.
It's updated daily and curated by Emmy Award Winning Journalist, Allison Haunss.

Tags

WWR Article Summary (tl;dr)Online retail giant Amazon has pioneered a data-driven strategy for cross-selling and upselling. In fact, Amazon attributes 35 percent of its revenue to cross-selling, and that money is coming out of your pocket.

Gobankingrates

Selling everything from clothing to pocket-sized cannons for your desk, Amazon is an online retailer like no other.

The company has earned a reputation for offering competitive prices and fast shipping, but all that convenience comes with a high price tag for the sales giant.

Although profits rose once again in the first quarter of 2017, a Business Insider article revealed that revenue came in at $43.7 billion instead of the $44.68 billion analysts anticipated. In order to continue offering speedy shipping and other perks customers have come to expect, the company finds many ways to boost its income.

That doesn’t mean you can’t be savvy when you shop the website. Find out how to save money on Amazon products by avoiding the tricks the retailer uses to make you overspend.

DATA-DRIVEN UPSELLS
Amazon uses a highly sophisticated algorithm to recommend the right products to the right customers, at just the right times. The company has access to data that allows it to analyze behavior from customers and use the information to recommend products to other shoppers with similar profiles.

According to Vadim Bichutskiy, director of data science at Innovizo, Amazon has pioneered a data-driven strategy for cross-selling and upselling.

“As an avid reader, I buy lots of books on Amazon, and on many occasions I have taken advantage of its ‘frequently bought together’ and ‘customers who bought this item also bought’ features,” said Bichutskiy. “Not only did I enjoy the books, but I never would have known about them without these recommendations.”

In fact, Amazon attributes 35 percent of its revenue to cross-selling, and that money is coming out of your pocket.